Primordial black holes as seeds for extremely overmassive active galactic nuclei observed by JWST
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has recently identified A2744-QSO1 as a compact, metal-poor, black hole (BH)-dominated galaxy at z ≃ 7. This system exhibits an extreme black-hole-to-stellar mass ratio and unusually low metallicity, posing significant challenges to BH seeding models. Motivated...
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| Autori principali: | , , , |
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| Natura: | Article (Journal) |
| Lingua: | inglese |
| Pubblicazione: |
March 20 2026
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| In: |
The astrophysical journal. Part 2, Letters
Year: 2026, Volume: 1000, Fascicolo: 1, Pages: 1-8 |
| ISSN: | 2041-8213 |
| DOI: | 10.3847/2041-8213/ae4bd0 |
| Accesso online: | Resolving-System, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae4bd0 Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae4bd0 
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| Note sull'autore: | Saiyang Zhang, Boyuan Liu, Volker Bromm, Florian Kühnel |
| Riassunto: | The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has recently identified A2744-QSO1 as a compact, metal-poor, black hole (BH)-dominated galaxy at z ≃ 7. This system exhibits an extreme black-hole-to-stellar mass ratio and unusually low metallicity, posing significant challenges to BH seeding models. Motivated by these discoveries, we perform high-resolution cosmological simulations with a massive primordial black hole (PBH; MBH = 5 × 107M⊙) seed, incorporating for the first time a fully coupled treatment of PBH accretion, BH feedback, and Population III/II star formation and stellar feedback. Although PBHs accelerate structure formation through the seed effect, the associated strong thermal feedback from the accretion delays the onset of star formation to z ≲ 10, producing short, bursty episodes throughout the subsequent evolution. PBH-driven outflows expel enriched gas from the nucleus, while sustained inflows from the intergalactic medium continuously replenish pristine material. This feedback-regulated cycle naturally yields low accretion rates (), subsolar metallicities (Z/Z⊙ ≲ 10−2), and extreme MBH/M⋆ ratios during both the initial star-forming phase and the subsequent quenching phases, in excellent agreement with JWST observations. Our results demonstrate that massive PBHs offer a viable pathway for forming the most extreme high-redshift systems, providing a physically motivated explanation for the extraordinary properties of A2744-QSO1, as a subclass of the broader population of JWST-discovered “little red dots.” |
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| Descrizione del documento: | Online veröffentlicht am 16. März 2026 Gesehen am 21.08.2026 |
| Descrizione fisica: | Online Resource |
| ISSN: | 2041-8213 |
| DOI: | 10.3847/2041-8213/ae4bd0 |